Newsletter Term 3 Week 3 (9.8.24)

Message from the Principal - Lynne Pull

Dear Parents

Well done to all our students who made their commitment to preparing well for the Sacrament of Confirmation at last weekend’s Masses. The parent workshop during the week was well attended. Students will be involved in a retreat day, along with all of Year 3, next Wednesday. These are special days for students to really focus in on the importance of the sacrament. There will be lots of activities and a yummy pizza lunch. Students may wear fee dress on this occasion.

Some 50 students from Years 3 – 6 attended the Byron Bay Writers Festival during the week. By all accounts it was an interesting and engaging day hearing real authors speak. Hopefully students will be encouraged to continue reading and writing.

Next week is busy. With it being Science Week we will have a visiting science group here on Monday afternoon, Street Science. They will present to the whole school in the afternoon. The Science Fair will be held on Thursday. Students are reminded to follow the instructions for setting up their stations prior to school. This year we will have a science teacher and some senior science students from St Joseph’s College here to judge. Thank you to Mrs Kirstie Hawkins and other staff who are assisting her for organising this great event which has quickly become a well-established fixture on the school calendar. It’s wonderful to see so many students becoming involved.

Congratulations to all of our school representatives at last week’s zone athletics carnival. Champion school once again! There is quite a contingent who have qualified for the Diocesan carnival to be held at Coffs Harbour next Friday 19^th August. We wish them well.

Thursday is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. It is a Holy Day of Obligation so there will be a whole school Mass at 9.00am this day. Parents are welcome to attend.

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast Day of St Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first and only canonised saint. Mary MacKillop was a true pioneer of education for the poor in this country. She began the Sisters of St Joseph order of nuns who were responsible for running many of the early Catholic schools in Australia and New Zealand. Mary MacKillop continues to be an inspiration for all in our world today. One of best-known sayings was: “Never see a need without doing something about it”.

We are indeed fortunate to have Tessa Dafferne in our school next Tuesday and Wednesday. Tessa was responsible for the writing of the spelling component in the new English curriculums. Tessa will be modelling lessons in classrooms over the two days. It will be great professional learning for our staff.

Book Week is the week after next. We will have a Book Character Hat Parade this year on The Friday morning – 23^rd August. Students are asked to think about how to represent a book character through a hat. We particularly encourage students to be creative and make a hat from recyclable materials or things freely available at home. We don’t want lots money being spent on this. Of course if you have a hat at home that is representative of a book character that is fine. But we are particularly looking for something creative! Everyone is encouraged to get involved.

There has been wonderful feedback from parents and teachers about the 3-way learning conferences. It is our belief that students will grow in owning their learning and be more accountable for working towards their goals through this process. The more we do this the more competent students will become. It is sad that some parents fail to see the importance of these sessions. This is about your children. They have all worked towards being able to articulate how they are learning and what their goals are and why, and sharing this with their parents is powerful. It is also a big let down for them when parents don’t value this and say they are too busy. If you neglected to make the time, I would still encourage you to contact your child’s teachers and endeavour to meet soon. I am certain that teachers will be accommodating.

We are currently interviewing prospective Kindergarten students for next year. Do you have a child due to start school in 2025? Have you completed an enrolment application and booked an appointment? Do you know anyone else in this situation? We would like to complete the Kindergarten enrolment process before the end of term. Thanks for your assistance with this.

See the hand of God in all that happens. (Mary MacKillop)

Have a great weekend everyone

God bless

Lynne

Important Dates & School Information

Term 3 2024

Monday, 12th August - Street Science Incursion

Tuesday, 13th August - Parent Forum @ 5pm

Thursday, 15th August - Feast of the Assumption - MASS at 9am

Thursday, 15th August - Science Fair

Friday, 16th August - DIOCESAN Athletics

Friday, 16th August - Semester 1 Academic awards

Monday, 19th August - Book Fair and Book Week begins

Tuesday, 20th August - AFL Gala Day Round 2 Carrara

Friday, 23rd August - Book Character Hat Parade

Monday, 26th August - Safe on Social Cyber Safety Workshop 5.15 to 6.30 pm

Thursday, 29th August - Father's Day Stall

Friday, 30th August - Father's Day Breakfast 7.30 am

Child Protection Policy can be found on our School Website under Information/School Policies: St Anthony's Primary School Website or in the following link: https://www.kngplism.catholic.edu.au/policies

Something to think and pray about

Going to the Dark, Empty Places

We all have experience of darkness in life at times. The darkness comes in those places where our shadows trip us up. For some, those shadows are shadows of anger or unforgiveness or ill-health. For others, broken relationships or financial worries might be the shadows that dwell in the dark, empty places.

It is in facing into the dark and empty place that we can see the reality that our problems, though sometimes seemingly great in size or magnitude, are never the entirety of the story. For me, slowing down and regaining the discipline of prayer and reflection, rather than bringing me to a place of terror and ruin, actually takes me to a place of healing. It’s a place of encounter with reality, of encounter with God.

Excerpted from Emerging from the Mess by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (p.21)

We Remember At This Time…

Jesuits worldwide celebrate St Ignatius of Loyola’s feast day on July 31st each year. Let us pray to St Ignatius to help us deepen our life of prayer, through his time-tested methods of self-examination, (the “Examen”), reflection, discernment, and using the principles of the Spiritual Exercises. We thank God for Ignatius’s contribution to the Church and to the world, and ask him to intercede for us and all our needs. St Ignatius Loyola, pray for us.  Amen.

https://sacredspace.com/

Message from Gemma Ballantine

Seasons for Growth

Sports News

Tweed Zone Athletics Carnival 2024

The Tweed Zone Athletics Carnival was held on Friday 2nd August.  

Well done to the St Anthony’s Athletics team who competed to an extremely high level on the day coming away with the champion school trophy!

Congratulations to the following students:

• Harper Gallagher 11 Years Boy Runner Up Age Champion
• Bonnie Brownjohn 11 Years Girl Runner Up Age Champion
• Eden Usher 11 Years Girl Multi-Class Age Champion
• Andy De Beer Junior Boys Multi-Class Age Champion
• Floyd Morley 11 Years Boy Multi-Class Age Champion
• Flynn Flaherty 11 Years Boy Multi-Class Runner Up Age Champion
• The Senior Boys came first in the 100m Relay (Harper Gallagher, Kaynan Behs, Derayne Kelly and Edwin Keast).
• Senior Girls came first in the 100m Relay (Cate Thierjung, Kahlani Gordon, Lylah Fallon and Andie Staunton).
• Junior girls came first in the 100m Relay (Amelia Popov, Georgia Dodge, Lennox Stonefield and Bonnie Brownjohn.)

Many other students achieved places at the carnival in their events. These students have nominated to progress to the Diocesan Carnival representing the Tweed Zone, good luck to the following:

Isaac Behs, Kaynan Behs, Bonnie Brownjohn, Andy De Beer, Lylah Fallon, Kalani Favaro Andreo, Flynn Flaherty, Lola Forrest, Harper Gallagher, Callum Kelly, Zali Meyer, Floyd Morley, Harrison Morley, Amelia Popov, Gemma Rogers, Finley Smith, Evelyn Stewart, Joel Teague, Cate Thierjung, Eden Usher, Derayne Kelly, Edwin Keast, Kahlani Gordon, Andie Staunton, Georgia Dodge and Lennox Stonefield.

Thank You to Mrs O’Grady and Miss Thompson who went to the carnival as the St Anthony’s managers to ensure the students didn’t miss any of their events, your time is greatly appreciated. 

Environment Team

"We are thrilled to share some exciting news from our environment team! Our dedicated students have been busy creating a beautiful Native Bee garden in the school grounds. This garden will provide a safe haven for our local pollinators and help educate our students about the importance of bees in our ecosystem.

Healthy Eating Active Living Team

P&F Information for Parents

Flying Start

Our week at Flying Start has been full of OLYMPIC fun.  We have learnt all about the Olympics and how they began. We have already completed some events of our own and we have witnessed sportsmanship, resilience, sharing and caregiving all whilst being able to learn new skills and play for a shiny silver cardboard medal that is a hot commodity. 

Our events have included the long jump, hurdles, freeze dancing and sleeping lions. We can't wait to continue to spend the next week and a half competing for more medals.

Our self-help focus for this term is in full swing and we are using this cold weather to help our preschoolers with being able to take their own jumpers on and off as well as look after their belongings and make sure that they are put in a safe place.  We are confident that we will send all our preschoolers to primary school confident that they will be able to identify and be able to take on and off their jumpers when needed. 

We can't wait to see what fun we have installed for week 3.  

Parish Information and News

Parish Priest: Fr Paul McDonald

Finance Manager: Paul Crouch

Parish Secretary: Marty Darragh

Pastoral Assistant: Catherine Holliday

Phone: 0266741368

Email: parkings@bigpond.com

Website: http://stanthonysparishkingslciff.org

WEEKEND MASS TIMES
VIGIL: KINGSCLIFF 5:00pm
SUNDAY:POTTSVILLE 7:30am
KINGSCLIFF 9:00am

WEEKDAY MASS TIMES
TUESDAY: POTTSVILLE 9:15am
WEDNESDAY: KINGSCLIFF 8:00am
THURSDAY: KINGSCLIFF 9:00am
FRIDAY: KINGSCLIFF 8:00am

RECONCILIATION TIMES

SATURDAY: KINGSCLIFF4:00-4:30pm
SUNDAY: POTTSVILLE 7:00—7:25am

Current Office Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 9am-3pm

PARISH NEWSLETTER LINK: http://stanthonysparishkingscliff.org/news-events/

RCIA 2024

A JOURNEY OF FAITH
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)

Since Jesus invited His first followers to “Come, follow me”, the image of journey has been used to describe Christian discipleship.

Perhaps you or someone you know are interested in being baptised, or were baptised in another Christian faith but are interested in becoming Catholic. 

The RCIA provides a setting where the Catholic faith can be explored and the journey of faith can be celebrated within the local Church community. 

An RCIA Enquiry Night will be held on Tuesday, 20th August, 6.30pm, in the Parish Meeting Room at St Anthony’s Church (located behind the Presbytery, northern side of the church). You are most welcome to come along to learn about the process, there is no obligation to commit. If you would like further information contact Catherine Holliday in the Parish Office on 6674 1284 or email pa@stanthonysparishkingscliff.org 

St Anthony's Parish - Care Group

Many parents may have noticed from the Parish Bulletin, that the Parish has a Care Group which, among other things seeks to provide meals to any parishoners in need.

This could include times of family sickness, new mums struggling to provide for the family in the early days of returning home, and many other circumstances of genuine need.

Please be aware that the Care Group is very willing to help out if any families find themselves in need of this service.

Contact: Parish Office: 0266 741 284 or Maree Moore 0439 174 116